I came to this work because I was searching for myself. This, I have learned, is a lifetime journey. I realised coaching offered me a way to find myself, unblock my potential, and be of service using my particular set of talents that are partly DNA and partly my wounds.

Previously, I'd been working as a career counsellor, a market researcher, a small business consultant. The work was interesting, but I just knew something was missing in those practices. In my own life too. I was lost and frustrated by my own patterns although I didn’t know what I didn’t know. I just had a sense, or a longing, that there was more in me somewhere, but unable to reach it.

I asked my boss at the time about coaching. He told me it was a bit like consulting, but a coach made people write things down. That didn't sound especially brilliant to me(!). But something made me keep looking regardless.

I remember sitting in my first coach training class and it feeling like I’d come home. I felt this was something I was built to do, and something I needed for myself.

That was over two decades ago. I've been doing this work ever since.

What this work actually looks like

I don't follow a process. It’s our relationship that matters. I am there with you. When things shift in a session, it can happen many number of ways: Sometimes a client says it directly, “oh”. Sometimes I can almost feel a lightening. A pause. An awkward acknowledgment that something has landed.

Sometimes they say: I couldn't possibly do that. And then three sessions later: Oh. I think I'm starting to see what you meant.

Sometimes they leave knowing exactly what to do. Sometimes they leave realising it’s not about more efforting. Sometimes it’s about being gentler, sometimes it’s about being 10 times braver. Sometimes it’s exprimenting. Sometimes it’s trying out a new idea or tool, or talking to others about it. Or sometimes it’s just about remembering to breathe.

That's what change looks like in practice. One bit at a time. And sometimes it’s the changes on the periphery are surprisingly the changes that shift everything. With me it’s not the dramatic enlightnment and transformation. I’m honestly not sure I buy into that. From what I have seen, it’s usually a longer and quieter road but more durable too.

Why trust me with this?

Honestly, my first instinct is to ask you that question back. I don’t mean to annoy you by doing so, but I am curious. Something brought you here, and that something is worth understanding. What are you looking for and what makes this important for you? I'm genuinely curious about you.

But I'll answer too.

I have thousands of hours of one to one work. This is my lifework, not a side offering or an escape hatch from a career I hated nor an illusion to jump on the coaching dream of returns and autonomy. No. Actually if I wasn’t a coach, I think I’d be happy in public service, trying also to be of service in a field that matters to me. But as a coach I get to be innovative and have flexibility. I have a running joke with a dear colleague and friend that we must have PhD equalivants given the thousands of hours we spend diving into all things about how people actually heal and grow. And for whom and what works, because we are all very different, and that is important. That’s why a process and tools are absolutely not enough for real change to happen. The conversations I have with clients are the thing I was built for, and I've spent decades getting better at them.

I'm a PCC credentialed coach. My work is trauma-informed which means I understand that the patterns holding you back usually have roots deeper than the present situation. It’s important we see those roots and acknowledge them, including the warped and misshaped bits because they have grown that way for a very important reason. And they are part of the structure that built you. But now we want to heal and grow and your particular design forms part of how I work with you.

What I offer is a space that is genuinely safe. Not managed-safe, not professionally-boundaried-safe. Actually safe. A trusted place where you can say things you may never have said out loud to another living soul. You can hear yourself think, perhaps for the first time in a long time. Where I'm not waiting for you to finish so I can offer the next framework. Where I'm listening really listening and where useful offering an idea, observation, challenge or a tool if it's useful.

I work with people across New Zealand and internationally, usually one to one.

When I'm in with you, I'm really in.

If that matters, I'd like to talk.

Qualifications & Credentials

• Professional Certified Coach (International Coaching Federation)

• Certified Trauma-Informed Coach (Moving the Human Spirit)

• Certified Enneagram Practitioner (The Narrative Enneagram)

• Qualified Action Inquiry & Global Leadership Profile Coach (Global Leadership Associates)

• Certified Vertical Mindset Indicator Coach (Adeption)

• Results Associate Certified Coach (NeuroLeadership Group)

• Conversations at the Growing Edge (Growth Edge Coaching)

• Mindfulness and Somatic Coaching Trained (Mindfulness Coaching)

• Myers Briggs Type Indicator (MBTI) Certified Practitioner - CPP Asia Pacific

• HSP Certified Coach - The Highly Sensitive Person

• Love + Work Leader - Marcus Buckingham

• Certified i4 Practitioner - About My Brain

And:

• Bachelor of Management Studies (Waikato)

• Graduate Certificate in Career Development (Auckland University of Technology)

• Diploma of Secondary School Teaching (Auckland)